AARON REGUNBERG, The Nation; Trump, Like Sauron, Is Not Inevitable—but Only if We Refuse Despair
[Kip Currier: A good friend sent me this uplifting article tonight. It's good stuff, and even more true and more needed right now than when it was published three months ago.
As the author Aaron Regunberg says:
"If the only way Trump can conclusively win is by convincing us not to fight back in the first place, then every act of resistance matters...Every time we choose hope over despair, and put that choice into practice, our decision echoes out across the Unseen world with real consequences for the Seen one."
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/trump-sauron-tolkien-hope-despair/#
Pass this article on to as many people as you can.
And then send it again, and again, and again...
Hope is contagious.]
[Excerpt]
"J.R.R. Tolkien has a message for us: Don’t give in to Trump...
If the only way Trump can conclusively win is by convincing us not to fight back in the first place, then every act of resistance matters. It sounds trite, but that doesn’t make it less true. Every time we choose hope over despair, and put that choice into practice, our decision echoes out across the Unseen world with real consequences for the Seen one. (Or, if you’re not yet Rings-pilled and want a more materialist translation: Every time you contribute to the opposition in visible ways, you make it easier and more likely that others will join in next time.)
In this age of nightmares, the siren song of despair is tempting, and resisting it takes work. But The Lord of the Rings reminds us that in every way, the case for hope—the maintenance of which is a necessary (if not sufficient) victory in and of itself—is the more pragmatic option.
So let’s end the debate, just as my favorite Lord of the Rings character—and, I strongly suspect, Tolkien’s favorite, too—Sam Gamgee did during his and Frodo’s last, desperate push through the depths of Mordor to the cracks of Mount Doom.
Sam could not sleep and he held a debate with himself.… ‘It’s all quite useless. You are the fool, going on hoping and toiling. You could have lain down and gone to sleep together days ago, if you hadn’t been so dogged. But you’ll die just the same, or worse. You might just as well lie down now and give it up. You’ll never get to the top anyway.’
‘I’ll get there, if I leave everything but my bones behind,’ said Sam. ‘And I’ll carry Mr. Frodo up myself, if it breaks my back and heart. So stop arguing!’…
No more debates disturbed his mind. He knew all the arguments of despair and would not listen to them. His will was set, and only death would break it.
We may have some dark years ahead of us. And whether we allow them to also be despairing years is a choice—our choice. We must set our wills."
